Customer Experience Development Inconsistent

The positive news is that more businesses are starting to focus on their customer experience performance.

The disappointing news is that many are approaching it in an inconsistent manner resulting in mixed results, frustration and a lack of team commitment.

It’s clear that business is starting to understand by 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator and the customer of 2020 will be more informed, in charge of the experience they receive. They will expect companies to know their individual needs and personalise the experience. – Customers 2020 Report

A team and customer centric culture is vital to a long term customer experience strategy being successful and that must start at the top.

Unfortunately too many business leaders are paying lip service to their commitment and that is reflected in the lack of commitment and engagement from the team. One of the reasons for this lack of commitment by leadership is they do not understand the return on investment that comes from growth in customer loyalty and the power of customer advocacy in today’s highly competitive market.

A successful, long-term customer experience strategy is totally reliant on the development and implementation of a number of sequential steps. Trying to work through the process out of sequence or leaving a step out will ensure that results will not be maximised.

Temkins research shows that long-term success requires companies to build and sustain four customer experience competencies-

• Purposeful Leadership

• Employee Engagement

• Compelling Brand Values

• A Customer Centric Culture

Research confirms that companies that provide exceptional service have a strong competitive advantage. Customers are prepared to pay higher prices, make additional purchases, are more loyal and recommend the business to others. All of this can be worth millions of dollars to the local economy.

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Chris Bell is the Managing Director of Customer Experiences, a company committed to building successful businesses through the development of high quality customer experiences and co-founder of cemNZ www.customerexperience.co.nz chris@customerexperiences.co.nz www.customerexperiences.co.nz 027 2792360